SFM - How to Protect Your Downloaded Workshop Items

So, three months ago you found that PERFECT model in the SFM Workshop and subscribed to it. Over the last 3 months you've dedicated hundreds of hours painstakingly animating it. You created custom animations for it and imported them in all the right places. It climbs ropes, mountains and over beer kegs. It draws weapons and you applied SFMPhysics to it so it would RagDoll when shot. It's a perfect model of perfection in SFM Animation.

That final night as the sun cracked the horizon (Good Gawd, is it really dawn??), you put the finishing touches on the next year's Saxxy Winner. You save the file... NO!!!, you save MULTIPLE copies of the session; JUST IN CASE! and you play it one last time before you stumble off for some well deserved sleep. PERFECTION!!!

Later that afternoon, you open the session to do a test render, As SFM loads you go through the routine, clicking OK to all those annoying update messages (but you missed something REALLY important as you mindlessly clicked OK)

The scene opens, the camera is off the your main character, the one you downloaded and worked on all those months ago. You press play to watch it one more time before committing to the 8 hour render process required to make the 5 minute video. The character appears, on cue in the proper place, BUT!!!!!!!!!! It is replaced by an object SO deformed it is unrecognizable or that gigantic RED ERROR model.

No, No, No... This can't be right, so quickly load one of the other back ups; Same thing!!! You go through all the back ups; Same Thing!!! You switch to your superduper high output computer, load it up, SAME THING!!!! AAAAAARRRRGGGGG, What has happened???? You load up another session that used THAT model for a poster... Same thing!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAA, my heart!

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY MODEL??

The model you used was a model created and uploaded to the SFM Workshop by someone else. These models are downloaded you your machine and reside in your C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\SourceFilmmaker\game\workshop folder when you subscribe to them.

The Workshop is just that, a place for a modeller to upload a creation for the community to subscribe to and try out in SFM. It is not a permanent repository. Uploaders can change or delete the content they put in the Workshop and those changes are automatically pushed to the subscribers.

As you you open SFM, if there have been any changes or deletions for subscribed models, SFM will display a box asking if you want to download the changed files or remove the deleted files on your computer. (This is that important thing you missed mentioned above.)

In the scenario above, the author did just that. They either made changes to the model you had downloaded which caused the animations you created for your original download to deform incorrectly or in the case of the giant red ERROR model, uploader deleted their workshop item all together.

As SFM started, you didn't notice that the model you had subscribed to had been changed or deleted as you ok'd the subscribed content boxes.

If you don't have a copy of the original model squirrelled away somewhere, YOU'RE POOCHed unless the uploader uploads the original model again. The model you had been using from your workshop folder has been changed or deleted.

So, if that's the case... WHAT CAN I DO TO PROTECT MY PROJECTS???

Good question and here's one solution you might try....

http://youtu.be/uUihh5i8Ij4

[goyangistudios32]

I was expecting a step-by-step explanation, not a link to the same video.

[Pte Jack]

Thanks for the heads up Destroy Them With Tables, Fixed!!!

[Smoggylamb]

Bad URL, dummy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUihh5i8Ij4

[Pte Jack]

I mention that in the video... but some ppl want to protect their stuff so if an item disappears from the workshop because the author removes it, this method will assure that you don't lose it.

[EpicLPer]

Well this would indeed work, the only problem is that you're not getting updates or anything else from that subscription either anymore...

[Sam]

If you've unsubscibed a workshop item, it simply won't show up in the -Show used workshop items- list. So take a little note near the files you saved in the case of you forget the name of the creator..

[Pte Jack]

If your entry uses music or other intellectual property (IP) that wasn't created by Valve or part of an SFM downloadable content pack, don't forget to provide links to the included work in the description for your submission. For workshop items, you can generate the list of used items in your session within the SFM via Show Used Workshop Items under the File -> Community submenu. While you should provide links to used workshop items, you don't need explicit permission from the creators, since it is implicitly granted by submission to the workshop

[Justyn]

This is useful, however it's worth mentioning if the uploaded workshop model is created by the uploader you'll still have to ask for use permission before entering into saxxys or uploading to youtube assuming they ask credit for that aswell.

[Pte Jack]

Was until SFMPhys got broken again...

[Captain Slow]

Wait a second... It's possible to get models to ragdoll in SFM?
I MUST KNOW HOW